Significance of Kendrick Lamar's Superbowl performance. Here's what I've learned so far, would love to hear everything others find!
The Drake Stuff
- As the lights in the audience at the end said, this is Kendrick's "Game Over" in his ever-increasing beef with Drake. They teased the song "Not Like Us," in which Kendrik calls Drake a pedophile, nodding to the immense talk over whether he would perform the song there. When they did do that song, they added insult to injury by panning the camera over a cameo of Drake's ex, Serena Williams, dancing.
Black Culture
- Every human in the entire halftime show was black, including the prime old-school representative of the USA, Uncle Sam, portrayed by Samuel Jackson.
- When the dancers were in the american flag formation made only of men, there was a potent dance move of them all simultaneously did the Black Power fist.
- One youtuber referenced the significance of the colors, when Kendrick was wearing mostly blue and the only other color on stage was dancers wearing red, that it was a powerful reference to last year's "Pop Out" concert in LA which was a groundbreaking moment in music creating unity because the stage was filled with members of both the Bloods and the Crips, two gangs that have had decades of violence between them, going so far as to gather for a group photo at the end of the concert. During the photo, Kendrick said "This is unity at its finest... this shit makes me prouder than a motherfucker..."
- The choreography was jam packed with black culture, all the way to one of the most successful tennis players in history Crip Walking.
- Black culture is also celebrated with the souped up Grand National car, streetlights, and clothing styles.
Things I want to know more about:
- There had to have been a lot of commentaries on America with how blatant that theme was. I'd love to learn what all people find, beyond what I've heard about the boldness of doing that while Trump was also there.
- Symbolism, including the colors and all other things I missed.
- Significance throughout the lyrics and phrases that were added in during transitions, etc.